Flashback of an Imperial Veteran
by JFCG
Summary: Here's another short story. The regiment in question is an original. Check my Deviantart page search Edemen background for their full history. A weary Imperial Guard officer is haunted by his memories while in a Hospice.


" Hmmph. Shell shock, operational exhaustion, post traumatic stress disorder. Whatever those medicae pukes wanted to call it. But it wasn't any of those. It's pure HORROR. To see the men under your command wiped out. To see your friends pulverized before your very eyes. They told me to stay strong, to remain faithful to the Emperor. But there's nothing in this world or universe which can make you forget such horrors "

Name and rank: Major Dieter Anders

Regiment: Edemen 357th, 3rd Company

Posting: Injik III

Status: Saw combat at Linan City. Sent to a battlefield hospital behind the frontlines due to mental instability and minor injuries. Diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

Notes: This man is obviously very traumatized. If loss of all sanity occurs, he must be sent to an asylum or administered the Emperor's Mercy.

* * *

Major Anders lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. The endless drone of the fan was driving him insane. He closed his eyes, trying to sleep. Then, the sound of the fan started to sound like...

" What do we do now, sir??!!? "

Major Anders stood back up, dazed and confused from a grenade thrown at his position behind a ruined Sentinel.

" SIR??!! " , shouted Corporal Clomon, the vox operator of his squad. The corporal continued firing over the top of the Sentinel with his autogun.

Anders looked around. He saw a guardsman with a missile launcher crouching down and firing a missile at a wartrukk. He saw Orks getting cut down by an endless hail of las and gunfire. He heard the ka-bang ka-bang ka-bang of a Heavy Stubber.

" Tell Lieutenant Golan to get over here! " shouted Major Anders to the corporal, who proceeded to chatter into his vox set.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground around them. Anders looked up and saw that the Heavy Stubber team had been hit by an Ork rokkit. One of the men simply lay dead, both legs and one arm completely sheared off and most of his body burned. The other man vainly trying to crawl to safety, the lower half of his body missing. Major Anders returned fire with his auto-SMG, downing a greenskin.

" You called me, sir? " asked Lieutenant Golan. He was holding his power sword while firing at the Orks with his auto-SMG in his other hand.

" What's the situation, Vern?" said Major Anders to the lieutenant.

" Bad, sir. We just lost our Heavy Stubber team, and all the men are running out of ammunition. The Orks will overrun us if we don't get any support within the hour. " reported Golan to Major Anders. "

" Damnation! We musn't let those bastard xenos get to the capital! " shouted a frustrated Anders.

" Clomon, try asking the Imperial Navy for air support again. " he ordered.

Then, Major Anders had to evade an Ork who had somehow evaded the fire from the Guard lines and jumped over the destroyed Sentinel to attack them. The Ork hit Corporal Clomon with an uppercut from its chainfist, grinding the upper part of his body. Lieutenant Golan managed to hit it with a volley of fire from his auto-SMG into its face, killing it.

Two warbikes came zooming to their position. Anders ordered " Tell those AT boys to take those two out!! ".

Two missiles came swooping in from the foxholes. One hit a warbike dead-on, making it explode and fly into the air in a ball of flame. The other clipped the warbike's wheel, sending it out of control and ejecting its Ork rider from its seat. One of the sergeants ran up to the Ork and fired two shotgun blasts straight to the greenskin's chest before it could get back up.

Anders then saw a sight which horrified him.

A MASSIVE wave of Orks, charging to their lines.

" This is it. We're going to be overrun!!! " he thought to himself, before he yelled

" CHARGE! "

His men rose up from their foxholes and started running toward the Orks, some firing their lasguns and autoguns from the hip, others brandishing chainswords, powerswords and bayonets. Lieutenant Golan was running beside him, powersword over his head ready to strike the first Ork.

The two armies collided. Anders beheaded an Ork Nob with one hit of his powerfist. He saw an Ork gut a guardsman with an axe. He also saw two officers pumping a greenskin with pellets with their shotguns. Lieutenant Golan's head was split in two by a choppa, spilling his brains all over the ground.

They were losing. The last guardsman aside from him was just blown to bits by a series of bolter rounds. Anders saw a gigantic Ork, one with bionic limbs and several trophies hanging on its chest, lunging towards him. It grabbed Anders by his neck, getting ready to crush him with its bionic arm...

Anders was thrown back to the ground by the explosion. He managed to run to cover under pieces of wreckage. He saw Imperial Navy Marauders dropping bombs and napalm onto the wasteland.

After, he emerged from his hiding place to a charred battlefield. He ran over to the middle of the field, dropped to his knees and screamed to the sky.

Anders opened his eyes. He once again heard the drone of the ceiling fan. He was the sole survivor of his company.

" Did my men want me to regret my orders? Did they hate me for getting them all killed? They did save countless civilians from slaughter, but only by getting slaughtered themselves. " Anders thought to himself.

He closed his eyes again, this time, to sleep.


End file.
